Dota 2’s Top Pros Bested By Open AI Developed 1v1 Bot
Artificial intelligence company Open AI has created a bot that is taking down top Dota 2 players at The International 2017.
This year's big Dota 2 tournament is currently in its second to last day with only four teams remaining in competition. Between the event's official games, Valve always includes some fun show matches, and this year it brought in Open AI's aforementioned Dota 2 bot to face off against the game's most famous player, Danil "Dendi" Ishutin, live on the main stage.
Open AI said the 1v1 bot has learned from playing against itself in lifetimes worth of matches. In a promo video shown before the match we see the bot besting some of the game's top players, including Evil Genius' cores Arteezy and Sumail.
Once Upon a Time Showrunners Answer 15 Big Fan Questions
Once Upon a Time is returning in a big, new way with Season 7, which marks what showrunners Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis call a "requel" -- part reboot, part sequel -- for the ABC fairy tale drama. With the news that not every previously major character will be returning for this jump forward in time after Season 6's happily ever afters, there have understandably been a lot of questions about how this change will affect the many, many characters the audience knows and has come to love.
So with that in mind, I turned to you, Once Upon a Time fans, to find out your most pressing concerns and burning questions about Season 7. I took those and brought them straight to Kitsis and Horowitz, who broke down what we can expect for Belle and Emma's returns to the show, whether we can expect new versions of beloved characters like Robin and the Wicked Witch, and whether Regina Roni and Hook will be getting new love interests. Read the full Q&A below!
Is No Man’s Sky the Same Game it Was a Year Ago?
One year ago, we took our first steps into the giant universe of No Man’s Sky. At the time, the prospect of discovering planets and flying my own little ship around a near-infinite galaxy excited me, and I played beginning of the game in awe of its immense scale. But that new ship smell could only carry me so far, and it wasn’t long before I was asking myself “Isn’t there more to this?”
Since then, developer Hello Games has slowly been adding free content updates to No Man's Sky, most recently today's massive 1.3 update called Atlas Rises. You can read about all the changes here, but nearly every aspect of the game has been touched, changed, or improved in some way. Here’s a video of the update in action:
Silver and Black: Spider-Man Spin-off Gets Release Date
Sony has announced a 2019 release date for its upcoming Silver and Black movie.
As reported by Variety, the upcoming Spider-Man spin-off film will be released in theaters on February 8, 2019. Silver and Black will be directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, who is also rewriting the script penned by Thor: Ragnarok writer Chris Yost. The movie will be produced by Amy Pascal and Matt Tolmach.
Comic book readers know Silver Sable (aka Silver Sablinova) as the leader of the Wild Pack, a group of mercenaries who hunt down criminals. Meanwhile, Black Cat (aka Felicia Hardy) is a burglar who's skilled in martial arts and gymnastics.
Sonic Mania Collector’s Edition Unboxing
Sonic Mania will be released on August 15 for the PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, alongside a special collector's edition.
Featuring a 12-inch statue of Sonic standing atop a Sega Genesis (which plays the classic "Sega!" startup sound), a collector's card, a Genesis-style cartridge, collectible Sonic ring, and a code for Mania, the Collector's Edition is currently available to preorder for $69.99. Check out our unboxing of the special edition above, or dive into our gallery below for a closer look at what's included.
Sonic Mania combines remixes of classic 2D Sonic levels with brand new areas and elements, while also including secret areas that act as homage to certain Sonic games.
IGN Movies Podcast: Ep. 3: New Last Jedi Details
Welcome back to the IGN Movies Podcast!
This week, Jim Vejvoda, Ahmad Childress and Tom Jorgensen talk up the big news about Disney's move away from Netflix to launch its own streaming service, the casting of Riz Ahmed in the Venom movie, and the latest on Justice League.
The bulk of our conversation, though, revolves around all the new details we learned this week about Star Wars: The Last Jedi, from what's happening within the Resistance to the new aliens inhabiting Luke Skywalker's island hideaway.
Finally, we chat up what we've been watching lately on streaming and at the cineplex.
Listen to our latest podcast by clicking the lovely large type below - right click to download.
IGN Interviews Starcraft: Remastered’s Development Team
Even classics need renovations from time to time. After 19 years of zerg rushes, sellout tournaments, and an entire esports scene, on Monday, Blizzard is releasing a remastered edition of its iconic game. IGN talked to Robert Bridenbecker, VP of Tech Strategy at Blizzard, about the challenges updating a revered giant in the RTS genre.
“Starcraft is arguably the grandfather of esports,” explains Bridenbecker, but even he may be underselling the influence of Starcraft on the esports scene. With esports tournaments, casters, players, and entire leagues built around the game during its heyday, Starcraft isn’t so much a game as an institution.
No one was more surprised about the game’s success than the developers. “Go back to 1999, seeing those esport tournaments in South Korea, we were pretty blown away.” Back then, he and his team thought of multiplayer as a few people playing over LAN. “We didn’t expect 100,000 people in a stadium.”
Justice League an ‘Interesting Product of Two Directors’
Ben Affleck talked about the process of working on Justice League under two different directors.
Speaking to EW, Affleck called it "a little bit unorthodox" to work on a movie where one director leaves and another steps in under a situation like that which happened to Zack Snyder.
Snyder, who started as the film's director, had to leave Justice League after a family tragedy, and Avenger's director Joss Whedon stepped in to complete the job in his place.
"We got really lucky that he stepped in," Affleck said, saying Whedon is "the best person we could’ve possibly found" to take over from Snyder.
Marvel’s Huge Step Forward for the Comic Industry
In 2016, Marvel announced a new comic series called Immortal Iron Fists starring Danny Rand and Pei, a little girl newly imbued with the glowing fist of legend. But 2016 came and went without Iron Fists ever making its debut. A different Iron Fist comic was released instead, no doubt wanting to capitalize on the attention of the Netflix show releasing in March 2017. It turns out that Iron Fists, written by Kaare Andrews with art by Afu Chan, wasn’t canned but was being saved to kick off a new partnership between Marvel Comics and digital comics seller ComiXology (announced during July 2017’s San Diego Comic-Con) where it was released as the first-ever Marvel comic exclusive to the ComiXology Originals imprint. While this news might read like nothing more than the reveal of a new comic for most, it was actually Marvel taking an important step forward for the comic book industry.
Sonic Mania PC Version Release Date Delayed
Days before the game's release, the PC version of Sonic Mania has been delayed for two weeks.
Sega made the announcement during a livestream today, revealing Sonic Mania will now launch on PC on August 29. However, the 2D platformer is still slated to release on August 15 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
The reason for the delay is because the PC version isn't meeting Sega's high standards for the title, and as such, there's still some work to be done to make sure the game reaches Sega's quality requirements.
However, to help make up for the two-week delay, Sega will be providing free Steam copies of the original Sonic the Hedgehog for people who pre-order Sonic Mania or buy the Collector's Edition.